Uwe Wichert, State Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Control, Kiel / Germany Problems in Locating Historic Dumping Sites

Ladies and Gentlemen,

For the mine laying operation shown in the picture below

-we know the name of the ship: BOGATYR

- the date of the mine laying operation: 31.12.1914

- and the position of the ship: 55° 12,5 `N 015° 51,5 `E

But if we search at this position today, what object would we find? Would we find the

mine? I would say no and I will explain why:

There is a number of problems in locating historic dumping sites. Problems start at

the position and in the moment of dumping of ammunition or other objects. Every

action or every discovery of ammunition is an individual project and we must include

all available factors.

I divide the factors into the following groups:

-Navigation and procedures

-Documentation

-Wartime influence

-Effects of modern systems

Navigation and procedure

We start with a look at different sea charts. The German “Kaiserliche Marine” used

sea charts (left) with the origin before or from 1902. With regard to the quality of data

from this time, the sea charts were good charts.

30 and 45 years later the sea charts from the “Kriegsmarine” (right) were based on

the same data as the charts from the “Kaiserliche Marine”. Of course, new

information were implemented in the charts, but the fix status of 1902 was also

sufficiently exact for this time’s Navy work. Consequently, we can determine that

positions statements or documentations from this time have the same geodetic

datum. Today, sea charts with the geodetic datum “ED 50” are long bygone history,

“WGS 84” is still used, but for how long? - Electronic sea charts are the future!

During the wartime, in which “keeping something secret” played an immensely big

role, the Navy worked with so-called ”square charts”. Sea areas were appointed in

squares and were named with an encoding figure or numbers. In both wars, the

square charts were used by Navy and Air Force units. In the figure below we see a

square chart from WWI on the left and a square chart from WW II on the right. In WW

II, the position of objects in such “square charts” was not described using latitude and

longitude. E. g., a position of a mine line was characterized by square nr. 6469 up-

middle to down middle right sight. Here, I draw a modern grid system into the old

map and we can see the positions of mine lines in both systems. By this way of

documentation, we have no exact positions only areas or boxes but no information is

lost.

Navigation procedure.

During WW I navigation had to work without Radar or other navigation appliances

such as DECCA, LORAN or GPS. The navigation with sea charts was rather based

on land marks such as lighthouses, coastal lines, buoys and tons as navigation aids.

Thus, optical navigation and the use of the depth log played an important role.

Astronomic location was specifically so import as dead reckoning and was

independent from the work of the navigator and the influence of weather conditions

and currents. All factors were collected on the ship and got a part of the

documentation.

During WW II, all Navies had the same basic navigation procedure and helping tools

as in WW I. The development of Radar mainly aimed at detecting other ships or

aircrafts, but did not serve as a navigation tool. Navigation radar and systems as

DECCA and LORAN had the status “under development” or, in some cases, worked

in order to gain basic experience. Thus, we can say, that the problems associated

with exact positioning stayed on the same level during both wars.

Documentation

The movements of all ships and units were documented in the daily logbook. Based

on the navigation procedure and the sea charts and also the writer of the logbook, we

see differences in how detailed documentations were.

War events were recorded in the war diaries. These mirrored more the events in the

military behavior than actual locations of ships. Thus, a war diary alone is of little

help in identifying positions of mines. We need to explore other sources of data: In

addition to the war diary, we must always check or validate the logbooks, mine laying

orders, mine laying reports, minesweeping reports and combat reports. As long as

this material still exists, this work is straight forward.

War diary WWI Minesweeping Flotilla War diary WW II COM Minenschiffe (Minelayer)

Kaiserliche Marine 1915 21.June 1941

However, the loss of records or documentation (may it be intentionally or

unintentionally) impedes the investigation immensely. For example, in a given case

we know the date, the engaged squadron, we know how many airplanes started with

which mine cargo and that this air mining was actually enforced. But we have no

information on the position: The fact that the most part of documentation about

operations of the “Luftwaffe” have been destroyed at the end of the war by high order

is one of the most serious obstacles in locating mines.

Locating mines from historic data is always a “puzzle”. As an example from a postwar

mine clearance operation, I explain how this puzzle works:

The concrete finding of three air dropped mines and the actual positions are the

starting point. This finding can be related to the small part of documents seen in the

figure above.

- We further check which units laid the mines mentioned in the documents and in the

vicinity of the known area.

- It is important to check which tactics have been used by the Air Force and which the

prevailing weather conditions were. Also we must check which way and which

formation the aircrafts flew.

The answers to all the questions raised above and the collection of all needed data

resulted in today’s knowledge, that half of the minefield in question has been found

and destroyed.

Wartime influence

Own mine barriers were normally known by the own forces and they are able to

operate within these barriers. But the enemy’s mine barriers and especially the air-

minefield hindered the ships from free movement. The result of a research with an

undated stop point is that approximately 174 000 mines have been laid in the Baltic

Sea in the time between 1855 ( Krim War) and 1945 (WW II) and the approach

waters by the different nations. These mines, unrecognized under water hampered

the shipping movements in the wartime and a long post-war period.

Beside the mine laying the combat and attacks of surface ships and submarines as

well as from coastal artillery or even air attacks and air defense had an impact on

locating dumped ammunitions today. The defense against the threat of attacks got a

much higher priority than the exact documentation of the movements or the loss or

dumping of objects. Documentation of absolute positions were not at all the emphasis

on board the ships during or soon after many air attacks with arms used so often.

Minesweeping gears are created to reduce the function of mines. If the mechanical

gear grasps the anchor wire of a mine, it cuts the wire. During past mine sweeping

operations in such cases the mine came to the surface and could be destroyed by

gun-fire with or without explosion and it sunk immediately. If the wire was not cut as

desired, mines and anchor chairs were relocated to a new unknown position without

documentation. Discovery of anchor chairs and mine cases shows us the reality, that

minesweeping gear has moved a number of mines.

But also post-war examples show an impact on still existing mines. Fisheries after the

wars (mainly operating with trawl nets) “caught” or relocated enormous quantities of

ammunitions from the original positions. Unfortunately, three Dutch fishermen died in

2005 after the explosion of old ammunition in their net. In the case shown below

fishers had more luck, because EOD specialists were able to dispose of the mine

caught in the trawl net in 2006.

Impression from the Baltic Sea, mines and torpedos from 1914 -1945

Effects of modern systems

With modern underwater-drones, which are equipped with sonar systems of newest

construction and with navigation support by GPS, we are able to locate and identify

ammunition very exactly. In order to determine from which task this ammunition

originates, all the known factors must be investigated for this position. When all

factors have been considered, a picture will be established with the “dumping

situation and finding situation” in one overview.

An example is the record of the “finding dates” of a mine clearance operation carried

out in 1999 (left). Below, we have drawn the known data into a plot. The picture on

the right represents the actual situation in the area after validation of sea charts,

reports, and other information. After implementation of all factors, the following

conclusion was drawn: Sea charts with different geodetic datum, change of

navigation procedures, loss of information in historic documents, weather

conditions as storm, fog, snow and current, wartime influence, minesweeping

influence and fishery influence show us a difference of up to 2 nautical miles

between old (documented) and new (finding) positions.

Photo: Archive Uwe Wichert, RSwN, unknown sources